


Passages

by Krilymcc (KristiLynn)



Category: Glee, Heroes - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-07
Updated: 2013-02-07
Packaged: 2017-11-28 11:28:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/673886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KristiLynn/pseuds/Krilymcc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was at that moment that Claire realized that she and Quinn Fabray weren’t so different after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Passages

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mollivanders](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mollivanders/gifts).



> This goes AU for Glee after "Wheels" and after the season 4 premier for Heroes.

**Passages** :  _change of place or condition: the act of going from one place to another or changing from one condition to another_

  
  
Claire stood in front of her bedroom mirror, staring at her reflection. Today was, once again, her first day at a new high school as someone other than who she is.   
  
Claire couldn‘t believe she was doing this again. It hadn’t turned out so well the first time she did it. But then again, going to high school as Claire Bennet didn’t work out either. And going to college as Claire Bennet especially didn’t. So how could she say no when her dad gave her the option to go with him to the middle of nowhere and give the whole normal life as someone else thing another try?   
  
“You ready to go?” Noah asked knocking on Claire’s door.  
  
She turned and smiled at her father, “As ready as I’ll ever be.”   
  
~*~  
  
The car pulled up to the school and Claire looked out the window up at the building. William McKinley High School: this was it. This was where she was supposed to start over.   
  
“Want me to come in with you? Help you register?”   
  
Claire looked over at her dad, “No. I should do this myself.”   
  
She had to do this herself; High School wasn’t a battle he could help her win.  
  
~*~  
  
Claire bounced her foot impatiently as she waited outside the councilor’s office. She hated this part, the waiting, waiting to see if her lie was strong enough, waiting to get her new life to begin.   
  
“Claire Rose.” A doe-eyed redhead asked standing at the door.  
  
“Yes,” Claire sat up strait.  
  
“I’m Ms. Pillsbury. Why don’t you come in?”   
  
“So how do you like Lima so far?” Ms. Pillsbury asked as Claire sat down.  
  
“I don’t really know. I just got here. Seems okay though.”   
  
“Good, good.”   
  
They began to talk about Claire and her previous school, and Claire spouted off the stories she had worked on with her father and it seemed to go well.   
  
Until Claire got up to leave.  
  
“By the way Claire, have you thought about maybe joining a group? It would help you make friends.”   
  
~*~  
  
After school, Claire stood in the front hall staring at a sign up sheet for Cheerleading auditions. It wasn’t exactly what she wanted to do but normal teenage girls got involved, they made friends, and right now she needed to look normal.  
  
“Hey!”   
  
Claire turned around to see a girl that looked vaguely familiar heading her way.  
  
“Hi.”  
  
“Hi.” the girl smiled, “You’re Claire right? You just moved here?”  
  
“Yeah.” Claire smiled, “That’s me.”   
  
“Cool. I’m Quinn. We have English together. ” Quinn looked down at the floor and then back up, “Look I know we don’t know each other or anything but I’m going to give you some advice.”  
  
“Yeah?”   
  
“You don’t want to try out for the Cheerios.”  
  
‘Oh god.’ Claire rolled her eyes, ‘Here’s some cheer queen looking to tell me not to step out of line.’  
  
“I don’t?”   
  
“No. Ms. Sylvester makes Hitler look like a puppy dog. She’ll eat you alive.”   
  
“I can handle myself.”   
  
Claire turned around and began to walk down the hall but Quinn ran and caught up with her.   
  
“Even if you are good enough to make it you won’t last long. She doesn’t like anything different unless she’s making it different. And you’re different. ”   
  
“Whatever.”  
  
Claire sped up but so did Quinn.  
  
“Look,” Quinn grabbed her arm, “There she is now.” Quinn pointed her out, but Claire would have been able to spot her anyway. She was walking down the hall with her cheerio minions following behind her like ducklings, yelling about who knew what, pushing anyone who dared to be in her way. And Claire could see that maybe Quinn was right. She wasn’t cut out to be a cheerio.  
  
“Well I need an after school activity. What would you suggest?”  
  
“Glee.”  
  
Claire wrinkled her forehead, “Glee?”   
  
~*~  
  
Claire thought about what Quinn said all night and then next day she decided to go for it.   
  
“Excuse me Mr. Shuester.” Claire said sticking her head into the classroom.   
  
“Yes.” He paused for a moment, “Claire right. Third hour Spanish two.”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“What can I do for you?”   
  
“Umm, so I heard that you’re who I’m supposed to talk to about Glee club.”   
  
“Yes!” he sounded ecstatic, “Yes we’re always looking for new additions.”   
  
“Oh umm, no I’m not really looking to join,” she shuffled her feet, “I can’t really carry a tune. But I do like music and Ms. Pillsbury said that I should join a club to make friends so I just thought maybe there‘s something I could do backstage.”  
  
Mr. Shuester was quiet for a moment, “Can you sew?”   
  
“Um I guess. I’m not like Project Runway qualified or anything but I can hold my own.”   
  
“Good. Good. How about we start you there and see what else you can do.”  
  
“That works. Thank you.”  
  
“No problem. We meet tomorrow at 3:30.”   
  
~*~  
  
Her first week of school came and went, and it wasn’t that bad. Her fellow students as a whole seemed to find her invisible, which Claire gladly welcomed, and the small group of Glee members, while friendly, were too wrapped up in the upcoming regional performance to really try to get to know her. Well all but one.   
  
“Hey,” Quinn said as she sat down on the bench beside Claire.   
  
“Hey,” Claire smiled, “Waiting for a ride too huh?”  
  
“Yeah. My parents kind of have me on a short leash recently.”   
  
“I know how that is.”   
  
“So why are you here?” Quinn asked suddenly, “In Lima I mean. ’Cause if I lived in DC I’d never leave.”  
  
“Work. My dad got transferred, so here I am.”   
  
“Do you miss it?”   
  
“No.” Claire kicked the gravel with her foot, “My dad, he, uhh, he died there. So I want to be as far away from DC as I can.” Quinn looked confused so Claire elaborated, “My bio-dad. I’m adopted.”   
  
“God I’m so sorry.”   
  
“It’s cool. I didn’t meet him until--” Claire stopped herself, she couldn’t let anymore of the truth get out. “It was a couple years ago. We weren‘t real close.”  
  
“Do you know your mom? Your biological mother?”   
  
“Yeah. Yeah, I knew her really well.”  
  
“Knew?”   
  
“She died in a fire.”   
  
“I’m sorry. I just keep putting my foot in my mouth, don’t I?”  
  
“It’s cool. Actually, it feels good to talk about it. I usually keep it to myself, you know, I don’t want people to look at me and think, ‘There’s that weird adopted girl with the dead parents’.”  
  
“People won’t think that.”  
  
Claire smiled, “Thanks. You know Mrs. Shue looks like her actually. My bio-mom I mean.”   
  
“Then she must have been pretty.”   
  
“She was.”  
  
“It must be weird though.”  
  
“I thought she was her when I first saw her. I thought ‘She did it again. Meredith went and did it again’. I was a little happy when I found out I was wrong.”  
  
“What do you mean?”   
  
Claire bit her lip. She shouldn’t be sharing all of this. But she couldn’t stop the truth from coming out, “There was a fire when I was a baby. Meredith and I were separated and she thought I died, everyone else thought she did. And after that she went around from town to town pretending to be different people.”  
  
Just then, Noah pulled up in his car.   
  
“There’s my dad. I gotta go.”   
  
“Okay.”   
  
“I hate to ask but--”  
  
“Claire!” Noah called.  
  
“You know what?” Claire shook her head, “Never mind. I’ll see you tomorrow?”   
  
“Yeah,” Quinn smiled.   
  
Claire ran up to the car and got in.   
  
“Hi.”   
  
“How was your day?”   
  
“Good.”   
  
As they drove off Claire’s phone began to ring. There was a message from Quinn waiting:  
  
 _We all have secrets so don’t worry. Yours is safe._  
  
  
“What’s that?” Noah asked looking over at Claire.   
  
“Nothing.” Claire told him.   
  
 _Thank u._  
  
~*~  
Several weeks passed and Claire really started to become friends with Quinn. But of course this worried her, after everything she’d seen it had too.   
  
“Hey I don’t want to sound bitchy but there’s something I have to ask you,” Claire said as they waited for their rides.  
  
Quinn looked up from  _The Scarlett Letter_ , “What is it?”   
  
“Why are you being so nice to me?”   
  
“What do you mean?”   
  
“I’m a freak. No one ever wants to be my friend. Why are you trying so hard?”   
  
“I don’t know,” Quinn shrugged, “Maybe it’s because you don’t know me. Everyone in this school looks at me and they know who I used to be, The queen bee knocked off her pedestal by a pregnancy scandal. You don’t. I’m just some girl to you. It’s nice.”   
  
It was at that moment that Claire realized that she and Quinn Fabray weren’t so different after all.   
  
She had a past to forget. Parents who no longer saw her as their little girl, but as something else whether they‘d admit to it or not. Friends who would never know what she’s going through.   
  
“Anything else?”   
  
Claire shook her head, “That’s it.”   
  
~*~  
  
For the first time in a very long time, everything was going right for Claire. She had friends, she was loving Glee club, and Mr. Shue was even letting her choreograph a routine.   
  
But then the phone rang one morning when she was eating breakfast and that changed everything.   
  
“Hello?” Claire asked.  
  
Whoever was on the other line hung up quickly.   
  
“Weird.” Claire thought and then she looked down at the number on the caller ID. It was a New York number. And suddenly she knew what was going on.   
  
She should have known sooner. She’d seen the signs before, the late night phone calls, the secrecy, the way her father’s face got just a little bit sadder every time he looked at her.   
  
“You’re working for the company aren’t you?” She asked suddenly while they were on the way to school.  
  
Noah sighed, kept his eyes on the road, and told her, “Not the Company exactly.”   
  
“We’re going to have to leave aren’t we?”  
  
“Probably.”  
  
“And it’ll be soon?”  
  
“Yes.”   
  
Claire knew this day might come. It’s why she didn’t want to make any real friends here, because she didn’t want to leave them.   
  
When they got to school Claire didn’t even wait for the car to stop before she was out, slamming the door behind her, and running into the building.  
  
“Come here.” She pulled Quinn by the arm into the girl’s room.  
  
“What’s going on?”   
  
Claire leaned up against the sink, crossed her arms over her chest, and sighed, “I just wanted to give you the heads up that I might have to leave again.”   
  
“Leave like leave town?”   
  
“Yeah. And when I do I might not be able to say goodbye.”  
  
“What are you talking about Claire? What’s going on?”   
  
“Remember that first day we met? How you said that I was different? You weren’t wrong. My dad isn’t just some divorcee who answers phones for a living. And I’m not just a regular girl. Hell, my last name isn’t even Rose.”  
  
“Then who are you?” Quinn’s voice quivered.   
  
“That’s a long story.”   
  
“I got time.”   
  
So Claire told her the story, the whole story. And when she was finished   
  
“I know it’s weird and you can leave if you want. Pretend we were never friends. Just please, don’t tell anyone about what I just told you.”  
  
“Why would I do that?” Quinn asked, “Why would you even think I’d do that? Do you really think I’m that shallow? You didn’t choose this, just like Artie didn’t choose to be in a wheelchair and Kurt didn’t choose to be gay. But there’s one thing you can choose.”  
  
“What’s that?”   
  
“Don’t run. Stay and fight. You’re a part of Glee now and I won’t let anyone hurt you.”  
  
“I can’t ask you to do that.”  
  
“That’s too bad. Now sure we don’t have any kick ass powers but we have your back. All of us.” Quinn chuckled, “I’d like to see some big bad try to go up against Rachel Berry.”   
  
Claire laughed and whipped away a stray tear that fell from her eye, “She’d sing them to death.”  
  
“Right.” Quinn pulled her friend into a hug, “Now come on. Let’s get out there. Okay?”  
  
“Alright.”  
  
  
 **-END-**  
  
  
  
 **Prompt** :   
Passages   



End file.
